On 28th January, a combined ADU, MCM and 50/50 contingent set out from Yzerfontein on a cellulite sea, dimples studding the calm expanse. The boats churned up the rusty water of a red tide in their wake, as we buzzed past swooping Swift Terns, penguin rafts, and screeching gulls mobbing a fleet of fishing vessels hauling snoek-laden lines on deck. One team of intrepid researchers stopped off at Meeu Rock, which is very rarely visited. Eleven Bank Cormorant nests were counted and a total of six bird species was recorded. According to eyewitness accounts, John Cooper's knees were engulfed by a wave while he waited to re-embark. Later at the Dassen Island jetty, Crowned Cormorants blinked ruby-red eyes as Rob Crawford bravely performed stretching exercises over the gap between rubber duck and land. We were welcomed ashore by Johan, Leshia and Johnnie and over mugs of coffee, spotted one of the island's more unfamiliar visitors - a male Wattled Starling in smart white and yellow breeding plumage. Then, we proceeded to the business of the day. The brief: To catch and ring 100 pelican chicks.

Great White Pelicans Pelecanus onocrotalus are listed as near-threatened in the Red Data Book, due to threats of disturbance to their breeding sites. Dassen Island is one of the species' few breeding localities in southern Africa, and South African sites at which pelicans are now extinct include Robben Island, Dyer Island, Quoin Rock and Seal Island. The 650 breeding pairs currently at Dassen constitute 11% of the total South African population. The ringing programme we were embarking upon would fill several gaps in the knowledge of this species, such as whether or not there is an exchange of birds between breeding populations. Ringing data would also supplement existing life-history information on factors such as age at first breeding and longevity. Of further interest on Dassen Island is predation by pelicans on cormorants. Pelican adults have been seen cutting swathes through Cape Cormorant colonies and systematically picking off cormorant chicks.

Strategy was discussed, relying heavily on the experience of the only person in the group to have previously ringed the species - John Cooper, on Dassen in 1971. The final execution of the plan was somewhat reminiscent of Shaka's famous bulls-horn manoeuvre: two teams of runners cut the chicks off from the sea and herded them up to the "head of the bull," an open circle of interlocked low gates. Dazed and confused, the one-month old chicks stumbled into penguin burrows, through scrubby vegetation, over their own rather large feet and into the trap. Now and again, one of the few hardy rabbits that had survived a recent mysterious epidemic on the island was flushed from cover, and raced away from the pelican-focused human beings. Once trapped, the large, buff-brown, downy chicks submitted relatively quietly to the indignity of being embraced by one human while another fitted a metal ring to one leg (for individual identification) and a plastic band to the other (blue, to identify this year's cohort). The occasional lunge of a leathery and relatively blunt bill for the exposed jugular of a handler was mostly ineffectual. During the capture, several chicks regurgitated their most recent meals and it was disturbing (and rather revolting) to discover that these included domestic chickens. This highlighted the risk of the poisoning of pelicans, through their habit of foraging on offal from chicken and pig farms.

This last discovery, together with the aroma stubbornly clinging to those who had been in contact with the birds, slightly dampened appetites as refreshments were enjoyed back at Johan's house. Nevertheless, our spirits were high as, with the knowledge that the Pelican Brief had been fulfilled, we were escorted back to the mainland by pods of Heaviside's and Dusky Dolphins.